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9780819565518 : dances-that-describe-themselves-foster-foster
Paperback / softback
352 Pages
$28.95 USD
Add to Cart
Paperback / softback
September 4, 2002
9780819565518
English
352
9.25 Inches (US)
8.00 Inches (US)
1.7 Pounds (US)
$28.95 USD, £21.50 GBP
v2.1 Reference

Dances that Describe Themselves

The Improvised Choreography of Richard Bull

By Susan Leigh Foster and Susan Foster
Wesleyan University Press
An inquiry into improvisation as practiced by Richard Bull and his contemporaries.

During an improvised performance, both dancers and audience members reflect on how the dance is being made. They ask themselves: What will happen next? What choices will each dancer make? And how will these decisions contribute to the overall effect and significance of the performance?

Trained as a jazz pianist, Richard Bull did not uphold the opposition often found in dance between improvisation and composition. Instead, he believed that dancers, like jazz musicians, could craft a piece spontaneously in performance. Analyzing performances by Bull and many of his contemporaries, Susan Foster argues that their diverse practices embody distinctive values representative of different artistic communities, yet they all share a capacity to reflect on their own making, in a sense, describing themselves.

Endorsements

"Foster elegantly and seamlessly integrates the Africanist improvisational aesthetic into her lively, detailed picture of Bull's world, realigning a landscape that has too long suffered from ethnocentric skew."—Brenda Dixon Gottschild, author of Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance

""Foster elegantly and seamlessly integrates the Africanist improvisational aesthetic into her lively, detailed picture of Bull's world, realigning a landscape that has too long suffered from ethnocentric skew.""—Brenda Dixon Gottschild, author of Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance

""This is an extremely important book. By adopting Richard Bull's tactic of personifying 'the dance' as if it were a speaking, thinking person, Foster's book forces us to think about dance as a way of knowing, and about the ways of knowing that will be most useful for our understanding of dance as a social practice and a social force.""—George Lipsitz, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego
Wesleyan University Press
  • PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / General (61 Titles)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social (291 Titles)

Paperback / softback
September 4, 2002
9780819565518
English
352
9.25 Inches (US)
8.00 Inches (US)
1.7 Pounds (US)
$28.95 USD, £21.50 GBP
v2.1 Reference
9780819565518 : dances-that-describe-themselves-foster-foster
Paperback / softback
352 Pages
$28.95 USD
Add to Cart

Other Titles by Susan Foster

9780819574527 : my-body-the-buddhist-hay-foster

My Body, The Buddhist

Deborah Hay
Sep 2013 - Wesleyan University Press
$19.95 USD - Paperback / softback
$15.99 USD - Electronic book text

Other Titles in PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / General

9780819580542 : hiking-the-horizontal-lerman

Hiking the Horizontal

Field Notes from a Choreographer
Liz Lerman
Aug 2021 - Wesleyan University Press
$35.00 USD - Hardback
$19.99 USD - Electronic book text
$25.95 USD - Paperback / softback
9780819579546 : the-cultural-work-campbell

The Cultural Work

Maroon Performance in Paramaribo, Suriname
Corinna Campbell
Jun 2020 - Wesleyan University Press
$85.00 USD - Hardback
$26.95 USD - Paperback / softback
$21.99 USD - Electronic book text
9780819578891 : moving-bodies-navigating-conflict-satkunaratnam

Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict

Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahalya Satkunaratnam
Apr 2020 - Wesleyan University Press
$75.00 USD - Hardback
$22.95 USD - Paperback / softback
$17.99 USD - Electronic book text
See All 61 Titles in PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / General


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